The Holocene Paleoenvironmental History of Northern Baja California

The incredibly rich mixed anthropogenic and raptor-derived trans-Holocene vertebrate
fauna from Abrigo de los Escorpiones (Scorpion Shelter), Baja California, has been
the focus of many research projects in the lab. Excavated by R. Gruhn and A. Bryan,
analyses of the site's lagomorph, bird, woodrat (Neotoma), and kangaroo rat (Dipodomys)
materials are nearly completed. These analyses have produced fine-grained information
of the Holocene history of El Nino and monsoon events in northern Baja California
and southern California and provide an essential baseline from which to compare the
human record of foraging and settlement behavior in these regions.